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• UK bans German meat and dairy products after foot-and-mouth case

  14-01-2025 14:26
  
  Import of pork, lamb and beef as well as live cattle, sheep and pigs suspended amid outbreak near BerlinBritain has banned imports of German pork, lamb, beef and dairy products to prevent foot-and-mouth disease spreading to the UK after a case of the disease was confirmed last Friday on the outskirts of Berlin.As well as prohibiting imports of ham, bacon, salami and cheese, the measure bans the import of live cattle, sheep and pigs, along with other animals which are susceptible to foot-and-mout
  
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• Murky dolphin deaths at Florida theme park prompt law enforcement raid

  29-03-2025 11:00
  
  State investigation under way at Gulf World after four dolphins have mysteriously died in past six monthsWildlife officials and law enforcement officers have raided a Florida marine theme park where several dolphins died in mysterious circumstances, and activists filmed survivors in tiny pools swimming in murky green water.Agents served a search warrant on Thursday evening at the Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City Beach, where the owners, the Mexico-based Dolphin Company, last week refused ac
  
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• Canada’s Marineland to rehome its whales and dolphins as it seeks a buyer

  20-03-2025 14:00
  
  Conservationists voice concern that the Ontario theme park will struggle to find suitable homes for its animalsCanada’s embattled Marineland theme park is to raise money to “expeditiously” remove animals from its grounds, including the world’s largest captive beluga population, as it looks for a buyer. But a lack of available sanctuaries in the country suggests finding a home for stranded whales, dolphins and pinnipeds will be a daunting task.In February, the park won app
  
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• RSPCA revokes Huon’s accreditation after video showing live salmon being dumped in Tasmania

  20-03-2025 08:23
  It means no Tasmanian salmon companies are certified as meeting the RSPCA-approved standard, its chief executive saysGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastRSPCA Australia has revoked its accreditation of Tasmanian salmon company Huon after the release of a video that it said showed the inhumane handling of live fish.The withdrawal follows an initial 14-day suspension after the Bob Brown Foundation published drone video that showed writhing live salmon being siphoned into a t
  
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• ‘Like a horror scene’: animal charity rescues 70 starving snakes from property near Durham

  12-03-2025 21:06
  
  The founder of an animal sanctuary, which is now caring for the royal pythons, has called for improved laws to protect reptiles reared as petsThe founder of an animal rescue charity who discovered 70 starving pythons and dozens of dead snakes on a couple’s property near Durham has called for better laws to protect reptiles reared as pets.Daniel Holmes, of Knaresborough Exotic Rescue, said the condition of the snakes – some of whom he thinks had not been fed for a year – was so
  
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• Promise to phase out lead from UK game shooting has failed, study finds

  06-03-2025 07:00
  Vow in 2020 aimed to keep shot out of human food chain but study finds most game carcasses still contain leadA voluntary promise to phase out toxic lead shot in the UK has failed, meaning wildlife and human health are being put at risk, a study has found.The vow, made in February 2020 by the UK’s nine leading game shooting and rural organisations, aimed to benefit wildlife and the environment and keep toxic lead out of the human food chain. They aimed to phase lead shot out by 2025, and ho
  
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• Labour in Wales will ban greyhound racing

  24-02-2025 16:55 via labouranimalwelfaresociety.org.uk
  
  Greyhound racing will be banned “as soon as practically possible”, the Labour-led Welsh government has said. Senior Labour figures announced the ban “as soon as practically possible”, adding it was not “impossible” before the next Senedd election in 2026.Greyhound racing has been sharply criticised for harming dogs. The BBC reported that ministers had been under pressure to ban the greyhound racing, ‘including from their own Labour members’.It
  
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• Article: Forgotten Fish

  17-02-2025 16:10 via labouranimalwelfaresociety.org.uk
  
  Recently, LAWS supported an event on farmed fish welfare at the Scottish Parliament, led by the Humane League.
  Here is an overview of this important, but too often forgotten, animal welfare issue, written for LAWS by Georgie Hancock from the Humane League.The Humane League UK are standing up for farmed fish, the forgotten victims of factory farming. We are calling for the  UK governments to implement species-specific legislation for farmed fish at the time of their killing, including mandat
  
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• Waitrose to stop selling suffocated farmed prawns, as campaigners say they feel pain

  15-02-2025 17:41
  As the supermarket vows to introduce electrical stunning for its farmed prawns, campaigners call on others to follow suitThey are a popular staple for office lunches, barbecues and takeaways, but prawns often suffer an unpleasant death before reaching our plates.Animal rights campaigners say billions of prawns farmed each year deserve better welfare protection and are targeting what they describe as “atrocious” practices of “eyestalk ablation” and suffocation in ice slurr
  
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• Labor gifts duck hunters longer shooting season in Victoria and ups daily kill limit

  14-02-2025 09:26
  Allan government announces extended 2025 duck hunting season with hunters allowed to bag nine ducks a dayGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWetland bird hunters in Victoria will have a longer duck shooting season and can take home more birds under new rules.The Victorian duck hunting season will begin on 19 March and run for 83 days until 9 June, up from 56 days in 2024.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
  
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• Domestic violence study that strangled rats should not have been approved, animal advocates argue

  13-02-2025 15:00
  Research aimed to improve detection of brain injury from intimate partner violence but critics say its non-fatal strangulation of animals was not justifiedFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAnimal welfare experts and advocates have questioned whether an Australian-led study that non-fatally strangled rats as part of research into the impact of intimate partner violence in humans should have been approved.They argue tha
  
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• Ministers stay silent on pledge to ban foie gras as EU talks approach

  13-02-2025 12:07
  Exclusive: Animal rights groups fear veterinary deal aimed at reducing border checks will prevent promised import banUK politics live – latest updatesMinisters have declined to restate their election pledge to ban the importation of foie gras in response to claims that a proposed “reset” with the EU will make it impossible.Negotiations with Brussels over a veterinary agreement to reduce the need for border checks on agricultural products are due to start in May with the aim of
  
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• Farmed animal welfare: LAWS hold event in Parliament

  11-02-2025 16:31 via labouranimalwelfaresociety.org.uk
  
  Today, LAWS held an event in Parliament on farmed animal welfare. Many Labour MPs dropped in to show their support for strengthening farm animal welfare and helping British farmers.We have identified four achievable policy solutions for the Labour government to strengthen farm animal welfare and support British farmers:
  Introduce mandatory animal welfare labelling Phase-out low welfare imports Transition to world leading cage-free systems Create regulations on slaughter for farmed aquatic animal
  
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• ‘They were going berserk’: horses allegedly distressed by frequent concerts at Flemington racecourse

  07-02-2025 15:00
  Exclusive: Stablehands speak out over concerns horses at Melbourne’s famous track are suffering due to event noiseGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIt’s home to the Melbourne Cup and has become a de facto venue for some of Australia’s biggest festivals, drawing international acts and tens of thousands of fans every summer.But just a short distance away, those working at the Flemington racecourse stables say the events are creating problems for an unseen
  
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• East Anglian farms breach environment regulations 700 times in seven years

  05-02-2025 07:00
  Freedom of information data reveals violations on intensive poultry and pig farmsIndustrial-scale livestock farms across East Anglia have breached environmental regulations more than 700 times in the past seven years, freedom of information (FoI) data has revealed.The farms across Norfolk and Suffolk are among the largest in the country. Pig and poultry farming is concentrated in the region and 28% of England’s pig population was farmed in the area in 2023. Continue reading...
  
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• Exasperated Swinney forced to deny he plans to ban cat ownership in Scotland

  03-02-2025 18:56
  Keir Starmer’s spokesperson also rejects idea of UK ban after online misinformation prompted outrageScotland’s first minister and the UK prime minister’s spokesperson have been forced to deny there are plans to ban cat ownership in Scotland after media interest in feline welfare proposals prompted outrage from pet lovers.The concerns were prompted by media coverage of a report for the Scottish government by the independent Scottish Animal Welfare Commission, which published its
  
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• Change of menu: vegan pioneer turns his focus to animal welfare

  03-02-2025 00:20
  Andy Shovel, who worked at McDonald’s and co-founded THIS™, says A Bit Weird aims to ‘disarm people through fun’Andy Shovel’s career to date has been, you might say, a journey. A little over a decade ago he was working on the chicken station in a branch of McDonald’s. He then set up a burger delivery business in west London, which he and a cofounder would go on to sell for seven figures.A celebratory holiday in the Maldives and a period of research later, in 2
  
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• How will the bird flu affect the Trump presidency? | Katrina vanden Heuvel

  29-01-2025 16:30
  Bird flu has already proven a disaster for humans and animals alike. And it could get far worseThree days after Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization, a Long Island farm began euthanizing 100,000 ducks due to an outbreak of bird flu. It marked the latest spread of a virus that has also killed more than 100 million chickens and turkeys nationwide. Though fewer than 70 Americans have contracted the illness so far, scientists have warned that this strain may be
  
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• Environment secretary lambasts HS2’s £100m bat shelter

  25-01-2025 22:13
  Steve Reed says plans for 1km curved structure to protect bats from high-speed railway are ‘batshit crazy’A bat shelter costing more than £100m near HS2 has been described by the environment secretary as “batshit crazy”.
  HS2 Ltd is spending the sum on the protection structure in Buckinghamshire, it emerged last year. All bats are legally protected in the UK.
  The curved structure, which has been described by the HS2 Ltd chair, Sir Jon Thompson, as a “shed&rdquo
  
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• Five years, multiple deaths: what is happening at the home of the last captive whales in Canada?

  14-01-2025 13:00
  
  Ontario’s Marineland lost five belugas last year, which the park’s management puts down to the ‘circle of life’. But activists claim animal welfare is at stakeOn the southern shores of the Niagara River, a few hundred feet from the thundering falls, sits Marineland of Canada – an amusement park, zoo, aquarium and forest occupying nearly 1,000 acres of land (400 hectares). Over the years, millions of people have clamoured to view the park’s 4,000 animals, inclu
  
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• One of four lynx captured in Scottish Highlands dies

  11-01-2025 18:01
  
  Postmortem will be carried out on wild cat, one of four humanely captured in Cairngorms after illegal releaseOne of the four lynx captured in the Scottish Highlands this week has died. The animal, which had been illegally released, was caught on Friday near Kingussie in the Cairngorms national park.The Eurasian lynx was one of four that had been discovered running wild in the Dell of Killiehuntly area. Two were captured on Thursday and are being kept in quarantine at Edinburgh zoo. The other pai
  
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• Fears of ‘rogue rewilding’ in Scottish Highlands after further lynx sightings

  10-01-2025 21:53
  
  Environmentalists condemn unauthorised releases as ‘reckless’ and ‘highly irresponsible’For a brief moment this week, lynx have been roaming the Scottish Highlands once again. But this was not the way conservationists had hoped to end their 1,000-year absence.On Wednesday, Police Scotland received reports of two lynx in a forest in the Cairngorms national park, sparking a frantic search. That episode ended in less than a day. Both animals were quickly captured by experts
  
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• Two more lynx captured in Scottish Highland woods

  10-01-2025 21:50
  
  Second pair of illegally released animals safely captured in Cairngorms after they were spotted on camera trapsTwo more lynx abandoned in the Cairngorms have been safely captured, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said on Friday.Two of the illegally released animals were captured on Thursday after being sighted in the Dell of Killiehuntly near Kingussie in the Scottish Highlands. Continue reading...
  
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• Two lynx captured after being illegally released in Scottish Highlands

  09-01-2025 11:21
  
  The wild cats were humanely trapped using cameras near baited traps and are in quarantineTwo lynx that were illegally released into the Scottish Highlands have been captured overnight and are said to be in good health.Police had issued a warning to the public on Wednesday evening not to approach the wild cats, after several sightings in the Drumguish area, near Kingussie. Continue reading...
  
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• UK ministers may lift BSE-era ban on animal remains in chicken and pig feed

  08-01-2025 15:00
  
  Exclusive: England and Wales proposals expected to follow Scottish consultation amid fears British farmers are being undercutMinisters may lift a ban introduced during the BSE crisis on the use of animal remains in feed for farmed chickens and pigs over fears that foreign producers are undercutting British farmers.A consultation on permitting the use of processed animal protein (PAP) from poultry, pigs and insects has opened in Scotland, and it is understood that proposals will be made for Engla
  
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• Puppies rescued from an abandoned caravan in Sussex – video

  08-01-2025 05:41
  A dog and 35 puppies were rescued after being left in a dilapidated caravan without food or water in Sussex. One dachshund puppy died days after being rescued. The woman who left the puppies was given a suspended sentence over numerous animal welfare offencesWoman who left 35 puppies in filthy caravan gets suspended sentence Continue reading...
  
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• Woman who left 35 puppies in filthy caravan gets suspended sentence

  07-01-2025 23:40
  
  One dachshund later died after Micaela Anderson-Letts left the animals without food or water in EastbourneA woman who left 35 puppies and a dog in a dilapidated caravan covered in faeces and without food or water in Sussex has been given a suspended sentence over numerous animal welfare offences.One dachshund puppy died days after being rescued from the mobile home in Eastbourne and other canines were treated by vets for malnourishment. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘The woman was frantic – it hadn’t eaten or pooed’: what happened when a hat bobble was brought to a hedgehog rescue centre?

  31-12-2024 10:00
  The good Samaritan’s error became a viral sensation. Now, the charity says it needs support for our real prickly friendsMarch 2024: a fever dream of Tory budgets, Princess of Wales conspiracy theories and, er, hedgehogs that turned out to be hat bobbles. Yes, as Jeremy Hunt gripped the red budget box for the last time, one tale of goodwill gripped our hearts – that of the good Samaritan who mistook a rogue hat bobble on a Cheshire pavement for a sickly hedgehog, and rushed it to anim
  
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• Calls for Labour to honour pledge to toughen anti-hunt laws

  26-12-2024 14:32
  Government urged to ban trail hunting as data suggests illegal foxhunting is still widespread in England and WalesAnimal welfare campaigners are calling on ministers to keep to a pledge to toughen anti-hunt laws, as figures suggest illegal foxhunting remains widespread in England and Wales.Almost 20 years since the Hunting Act 2004 was brought in by Tony Blair’s government, the League Against Cruel Sports (Lacs) – the animal welfare charity that was the driving force behind the origi
  
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• Police investigate ‘horrific acts of cruelty’ against 29 chickens found dead at NSW high school

  22-12-2024 08:16
  
  Disturbing discovery of animals cared for by students made at Corrimal high school, south of SydneyGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPolice are investigating “horrific acts of cruelty” against 29 chickens that were found killed in the grounds of a high school in New South Wales.Police were called to Corrimal high school, about an hour south of Sydney, at about 9:30am on Sunday and discovered the chickens dead in their enclosure.Sign up for Guardian Australia&
  
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